In such words as these he preached at me, till at length I could bear no more, and said roughly: 

“To me it is a very evil thing, O Inca, to separate those who love each other, and one that cannot be pleasing to Heaven.  Therefore, great as you are, and friend of mine as you are, I tell you to your face that if I can take the lady Quilla out of that golden grave of hers I shall do so.”

“I know it, my brother,” he answered, “and therefore, were I as some Incas have been, I should cause this holy Spouse to travel more quickly to the skies than Nature will take her.  But this I will not do because I know also that Destiny is above all things and that which Destiny decrees will happen unhelped by man.  Still I tell you that I will thwart you if I can and that should you succeed in your ends, I will kill you if I can and the lady also, because you have committed sacrilege.  Yes, although I love you better than any other man, I will kill you.  And if King Huaracha should be able to snatch her away by force I will make war on him until either I and my people or he and his people are destroyed.  And now let us talk no more of this matter, but rather of our plans against Urco, since in these at least, where no woman is concerned, I know that you will be faithful to me and I sorely need your help.”

So with a heavy heart I went back to the camp of Huaracha and told him Kari’s words.  He was very wroth when he heard them, since his gods were different to those of the Incas and he thought nothing of the holiness of the Virgins of the Sun, and once again talked of renewing the war.  Still it came to nothing for sundry reasons of which the greatest was that his sickness increased on him as the days went by.  Also I told him that much as I desired Quilla, I could not fight upon his side since I was sworn to aid Kari against Urco and my word might not be broken.  Moreover, the Yuncas who had been our allies, wearying of their long absence from home and satisfied with the gentle forgiveness and the redress of their grievances which the new Inca had promised them, were gone, having departed on their long march to the coast, while many of the Chancas themselves were slipping back to their own country.  Therefore Huaracha’s hour had passed by.

So at length we agreed that it would be foolish to attack Cuzco in order to try to rescue Quilla, since even if Huaracha won in face of a desperate defence, probably it would be only to find that his daughter was dead or had vanished away to some unknown and distant convent.  All that we could do was to trust to fortune to deliver her into our hands.  We agreed further that, having obtained an honourable peace and all else that he desired, it would be well for Huaracha to return to his own land, leaving me a body of five thousand picked men who were willing to serve under me, to assist in the war against Urco, to be my guard and that of Quilla, if perchance I could deliver her from the House of the Sun.